Todd McFarlane Talks Horror Movie Version of ‘Spawn’ Will Be R-Rated

Back in September, Dark Universe gave you first details on Todd McFarlane’s next Spawn project. For those of you wanting an update on Todd McFarlane’s new Spawn film vision are in for a treat. Yesterday, the guys over at ComicBook got the chance to speak with McFarlane, the man who first launched Spawn in comic book form back in 1992.

The most exciting part of this update has got to be that McFarlane’s next Spawn is going down the horror root, and he plans to direct the project himself. Not only does he want to direct it, he also wants to put the film in front of horror movie crowds with an R rating.

Spawn will be going for horror film audiences:

“It’s slowly moving forward, just trying to put all the pieces together both from an artistic and a financial. The intent is trying to finance as much as possible internally and then finding partners who will help in the production of it as we move forward,” McFarlane told the site. “I can argue getting the money might be harder than getting everybody signed off on the story. What I can tell you is what I’ve told everybody else: it will be a definite R. I’m not going for the same crowd that Marvel and DC is going for; I’m going for the same crowd that horror film releases going for. People who want to take their boyfriend or girlfriend or go out with the girls and go to the movies and get spooked.”

McFarlane on angels and demons:

“When I started writing, even at the very beginning when they gave me a new Spider-Man book, it wasn’t an accident that in my entire run on that book, the characters in it were The Lizard, Wendigo, Morbius, and Ghost Rider,” McFarlane explained. “I was just putting a bunch of monsters in there because I love drawing them. Now Spawn is full of angels and demons.”

On directing Spawn himself:

“I’ve been living with the idea for so long that I wanted to direct it, but I knew that if I gave it to Hollywood and they spent a lot of money on it then just from a practical point of view, it wouldn’t be fair for me to then say ‘I want to direct,'” McFarlane said. “It’s not good business to spend $80 million on movie and then give it to somebody who’s not known for directing movies — but if you can make a movie for $10 million, they’ll get a lot of less experienced directors to do those movies. So I knew I needed to keep the story and the budget both tight so that when I go to Hollywood and I say ‘I have to direct it, that’s not even a negotiation, so if you can’t accept that, then the conversation is over quickly,’ then once they understand the scope and size and budget of it, they’re like ‘Oh, okay. It’s not like Todd’s coming in here asking for $100 million and then saying let me direct my first movie. He’s saying ‘Give me $10 million to make a little horror movie and let’s see if we can scare some people. We’ve done that tons of times.‘”

Doesn’t this sound exciting? Another Spawn in horror movie form is a dream come true for us fans. We don’t have any official word on when we could see the next Spawn film, but Dark Universe will keep you posted when news brakes.